Why Finishing Is Often Easier Than Starting for ADHD
- Matt Barnett
- Jan 26
- 3 min read
One of the strangest ADHD experiences is this:
Starting a task can feel almost impossible.But once you’re in it, finishing can feel surprisingly easy.
To people on the outside, this looks contradictory. If someone can work for hours once they’ve started, why was beginning such a problem in the first place? It’s easy to assume the difficulty was exaggerated, or that the person simply didn’t want to start.
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But for many people with ADHD, this pattern is very real — and very consistent.
The reason has nothing to do with effort or commitment. It has everything to do with momentum.
ADHD brains often struggle to generate momentum, but once momentum exists, they can use it extremely well. The difficulty is not doing the work. The difficulty is crossing the invisible threshold between stillness and movement.
Before a task begins, the ADHD brain is doing a lot of unseen work. It’s holding the whole task in mind at once. It’s anticipating decisions, outcomes, potential mistakes, and emotional consequences. That mental load can feel heavy before a single step has been taken.
Starting requires a jump from zero to one.And that jump is expensive.
Once the jump has happened, though, something changes. The task stops being theoretical and becomes concrete. The brain no longer has to imagine the work — it’s now responding to what’s directly in front of it. That shift reduces uncertainty, lowers emotional load, and allows attention to lock in.
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This is why many people with ADHD experience a sense of relief once they’re finally underway. The tension that built up before starting begins to dissolve. The task feels clearer. Progress becomes visible. Energy stabilises.
At that point, finishing can feel far easier than expected.
This is also why ADHD is often associated with bursts of productivity. When momentum is present, the brain can stay engaged for long periods of time. Focus deepens. Distractions fade into the background. In some cases, people even lose track of time entirely.
From the outside, this can look inconsistent. Someone struggles for days to start, then suddenly completes a large amount of work in one sitting. But from the inside, it makes perfect sense. The system finally crossed the threshold, and momentum did the rest.
Understanding this helps explain why advice like “just chip away at it a little each day” often fails for ADHD. That approach assumes momentum is easy to re-enter. For many ADHD brains, it isn’t. Each restart requires paying the full cost of initiation again.
This is also why interruptions can be so disruptive. When momentum is broken, restarting can feel just as hard as starting from scratch. It isn’t laziness or stubbornness — it’s the loss of a state that took real effort to enter.
Finishing feels easier because the brain is already engaged. Decisions have been made. Direction exists. The task has shape. There’s less ambiguity and less emotional friction.
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Starting feels harder because everything is still potential. Nothing is anchored yet. The brain has to do more work before any visible progress appears.
This pattern can create misunderstandings in relationships and at work. Partners may wonder why chores are delayed but then completed quickly. Managers may be confused by last-minute productivity. People with ADHD may feel guilty for relying on momentum instead of steady progress.
But this isn’t a flaw. It’s a difference in how work is entered and sustained.
Once this is understood, the goal shifts. Instead of trying to force consistent starts, it becomes more useful to protect momentum when it appears and lower the cost of entering it in the first place.
That might mean allowing longer, uninterrupted work blocks rather than short bursts. It might mean designing tasks so the first step is concrete and immediate. It might mean recognising that once someone with ADHD is engaged, they’re often best left alone to finish.
Most importantly, it means letting go of the idea that struggle at the start invalidates competence at the end.
For people with ADHD, difficulty starting doesn’t mean they’re bad at finishing. In fact, the opposite is often true. Once movement begins, the brain can do what it does best.
Understanding this pattern replaces frustration with clarity. It explains why effort can look uneven from the outside but feel entirely logical from within. And it allows people with ADHD — and those around them — to work with momentum rather than constantly fighting against it.
If you’d like more clear, real-world explanations of ADHD like this, you’ll find a growing library of articles, resources, and courses at MeetMattBarnett.com, all written to explain ADHD without judgement and without shame.
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